IT Centric Consulting in Kuwait City - Risk Analysis - 20032004

Presentation by Dr. Ahmed Al-Olaimi :: Information Innovation Consulting ™ www.infonovation.com "Kuwait Theater of Operations!" The Presence of META Group in Kuwait City Ahmed Al-Olaimi, PhD. Strategic Planning Information Innovation Consulting™ Aug 2003 olaimi@infonovation.com 1 Specially prepared to META Group™ Kuwait Director All Copy Rights © reserved to Information innovation Consulting Preface Presentation by Dr. Ahmed Al-Olaimi :: Information Innovation Consulting ™ www.infonovation.com    The Purpose of this presentation is intended to present an executive summary for META Group – Middle East (Dubai, UAE) Chief Executive a “risk assessment” for the opening an office in Kuwait City focusing on preproblematic issues that might arise in the future for IT centric consultancy presence in Kuwait Market locale. [Omitted] [Omitted] 2 April 2003 Specially prepared to META Group™ Kuwait Director All Copy Rights © reserved to Information innovation Consulting Presentation Goals Presentation by Dr. Ahmed Al-Olaimi :: Information Innovation Consulting ™ www.infonovation.com     Solidifying the conceptual idea of having META Group opening a branch office in Kuwait City Exploring the specialty of Kuwaiti market psychology, and attempt to measure it up (meta-benching). Present a contrasting analytical prospective between:  Franchising Vs. Full fledged presence  Mixed identity Vs. Locally masked flavor  International marketing swat team Vs. Locale enriched consultants “think-tank” as a subautonomous operations. Present a tentative operations plan (SWOT-like!) 3 April 2003 Specially prepared to META Group™ Kuwait Director All Copy Rights © reserved to Information innovation Consulting META Group Reputation! Presentation by Dr. Ahmed Al-Olaimi :: Information Innovation Consulting ™ www.infonovation.com  Although META Group have a very good international coverage, yet its presence in the Middle East viewed always as franchised (almost outsourced) for a limited quota for sales! Which is heavily depending on “one-to-one” marketing!    Such tactics would be limited to sales not marketing!!! Meeting quota is easy! Increasing market share is a pure marketing issue! The market is seriously fearing the lack of resources thus “support”  Most of what META Group’s wins and contracts indeed was totally depending on the local representatives’ “personal contacts”    Inevitability of market share drainage To most existing potential clients the “very” long sales cycle is too demanding for a “newbie” consultant as well as sales person META Group line of products have a long life cycle of presence, especially long term contracts! How many sales per client/year? Specially prepared to META Group™ Kuwait Director All Copy Rights © reserved to Information innovation Consulting 4 April 2003 Kuwait Locale Meta-Benching Presentation by Dr. Ahmed Al-Olaimi :: Information Innovation Consulting ™ www.infonovation.com  Regional political status prevents well developed and sound methodology aware consultants from participation (war zone!)   Only regional and/or local high-caliber consultants, sales, and management would dare operate! Consulting Market size is huge (more than one half of a billion $ per annum) crated a real competition frenzy between consulting giants (KPMG, IBM, EY, PWC, BAH, Accenture, and others). Each created a local operations office with sub-autonomous configuration management office.   Many local miniature consulting offices emerged and grabbed opportunity as well as many freelancing consultants with more focused disciplines. (Imaging and workflow management, BPR, organizational development, IT strategic planning, RFP’s preparation, executive coaching, business development, business planning, software development, market research, statistical analysis, and many more diverse with intuition towards vertical markets!) Educational level of Kuwaiti IT client is well above international average! Due to the educational standards of the state system. In addition to the returning graduates from the “higher tech.” countries!   Computer studies is a compulsory subject starting from elementary schools E-Government initiatives created a surge in budgeting for IT “functionality Specially prepared to META Group™ Kuwait Director All Copy Rights © reserved to Information innovation Consulting 5 April 2003 M.E. Market Place Assessment Operations Prospective Presentation by Dr. Ahmed Al-Olaimi :: Information Innovation Consulting ™ www.infonovation.com  META Group Central operations is focused on one person for management bypassing the REALITY in understanding the nature of the cultural impact in the inter-mid-eastern countries’ boarder lines, and the locale geopolitical psychology that is ongoing underground.   KSA is not UAE, nor Kuwait is Egypt! GCC countries’ citizens move freely cross boarders, yet an expatriate in Kuwait is required to issue a permit for visiting with justified reasons to cross KSA boarders!    The future market for IT and its value added services, lies underneath Kuwait geographical location! For the fact that it’s an American authority that is governing Iraq and they declared Kuwait as their entry point! Too many junior management (well educated) are pushed up the organizational latter in most of regional organizations including governmental entities. Without solid presence and aggressive educational marketing communication competitors would easily sweep the market (marketing battle already commenced!) META Group must understand the market psychology as well as the local operations procedures for legal contractual agreements!  Legal disputes, contractual constrains, government's tendering. Etc. Specially prepared to META Group™ Kuwait Director All Copy Rights © reserved to Information innovation Consulting 6 April 2003 Operations Prospective Presentation by Dr. Ahmed Al-Olaimi :: Information Innovation Consulting ™ www.infonovation.com  Kuwait operations is managed remotely from another GCC country by a non-GCC native, this would limit leads creation as well as clients followup, especially when the initial presentation was conducted and the a higher caliber consultant needed to “fine-tune” some technical detailing. • Strengths • • • • • • • • • • • Minimizing budget (marketing, personnel and office costs) Possible match for “regional quota” in sales Tightly coupled management of operations (central) Central operations means overloaded tasked management Mostly assured overlook of opportunities Bad image representation for the local representative (virtual worker ideology!) Limited marketing efforts with non-local office for referencing Non-Serious image build-up towards non-confidence in teaming Total market isolation generating a fictional market seismic estimation Lose of current clients with possible legal consequences Almost none! With one exception: replacing the local representative and blame him/her for quota mismatch! And capitalize on a new one for another cycle of 1-to-1 marketing! • Weaknesses • Threats • Opportunities   Alas, “franchising” concept is well understood in this part of the world and camellia image is not a solution to resort to in time of age where consistent global image and presence is not an option anymore! Thus, Full fledged presence is a must to win this market respect! Specially prepared to META Group™ Kuwait Director All Copy Rights © reserved to Information innovation Consulting 7 April 2003 Operations Prospective Cont’d. Presentation by Dr. Ahmed Al-Olaimi :: Information Innovation Consulting ™ www.infonovation.com   Mixed identities is a new but acceptable image by the market, the indications are :  The acceptance of freelancing consultants – local nationals  The acceptance of major organizations for the idea that a miniature and native consulting firm would deliver  Many major consulting league players are increasingly recruiting sophisticated local consultants as part of their daily operations (management, consultants, marketing, sales support, etc.)  The parliamentary decree (2001) that mandates major governmental contracts to be favored to those international and local companies which would meet the personnel quota of nationals to be of %25 and above, regardless of the bidding price! No doubts international house hold name shall pave the way for good marketing campaign and positive image build-up, i.e. “launching new operations office Kuwait city”! Specially prepared to META Group™ Kuwait Director All Copy Rights © reserved to Information innovation Consulting 8 April 2003 Basic Requirements Configuration management office Presentation by Dr. Ahmed Al-Olaimi :: Information Innovation Consulting ™ www.infonovation.com  Physical Office    Communication and clients’ inquires Hosting prospective clients Presentations and meeting Minimum requirement for leads creation Sales is not marketing! Arabization and localization of publications  Marketing team     Technical team for fast proposals and actual local flavored “think-tank” to tackle urgent pop-up projects.  META Group Methodology bearers and advocates Book keeping CRRM : Client Relation & Retention Management. Immediate management support Logistical and Technical (IT) support Specially prepared to META Group™ Kuwait Director All Copy Rights © reserved to Information innovation Consulting  Central secretariat office     9 April 2003 Epilogue Presentation by Dr. Ahmed Al-Olaimi :: Information Innovation Consulting ™ www.infonovation.com       Current times requires a pervasive presence with aggressive marketing Image must be adequately sustained with other options to bypass. Only local experienced professionals can help! Geopolitical psychology must never be neglected for the benefit of future market sharing Annual budgeting and marketing plans must be formulated as targeted goals for optimized performance and productivity A local configuration office is a must, with no other alternatives to be visited, due to the fact that many local and miniature consulting firms indeed grapping a market share with a fully in-house tuned up operations Last (not the least) market presences is heavily depending on the ability to adapt to the local marketing campaigns to the current market share-holders! Thank You! Specially prepared to META Group™ Kuwait Director All Copy Rights © reserved to Information innovation Consulting 10 April 2003